Quiz

Signals & Systems

November 14th, 2013

(151-0575-01)

P. Reist & Prof. R. DAndrea

Solutions

Exam Duration:

40 minutes

Number of Problems:

Permitted aids:

None.
Use only the prepared sheets for your solutions.
Additional paper is available from the supervisors.

Quiz Signals & Systems

Problem 1

Quiz Signals & Systems

Problem 1

10 points

A system is governed by the difference equation

y[n] = 2x[n] x[n 3].
Determine analytically whether the system:
a) is linear;
b) is time-invariant.

(3 points)
(3 points)

Now, consider the impulse response of a different system, which is

linear and time-invariant:
h[n] = 2n u[n + 1].
c) Is the system causal? Justify your answer.
(2 points)
d) Is the system bounded-input bounded-output (2 points)
(BIBO) stable? Justify your answer.
Solution 1
a) Let
y1 [n] = 2x1 [n] x1 [n 3],
y2 [n] = 2x2 [n] x2 [n 3],
be the system outputs to arbitrary inputs x1 [n] and x2 [n].
Then, with x3 [n] := 1 x1 [n] + 2 x2 [n], we have:
y3 [n] = 2x3 [n] x3 [n 3]
= 21 x1 [n] + 22 x2 [n] 1 x1 [n 3] 2 x2 [n 3]
= 1 (2x1 [n] x1 [n 3]) + 2 (2x2 [n] x2 [n 3])
= 1 y1 [n] + 2 y2 [n].
Because the system satisfies the superposition property, we conclude that
the system is linear.

Problem 1

Quiz Signals & Systems

Grading: 2 points for the correct use of the superposition property. 1 point for the correct conclusion.
b) Let x4 [n] := x1 [n + n0 ], then
y4 [n] = 2x4 [n] x4 [n 3]
= 2x1 [n + n0 ] x1 [n + n0 3]
= y1 [n + n0 ].
Therefore, a time-shift by any integer n0 of the input corresponds to a
time-shift n0 in the output, i.e. the system is time-invariant.
Grading: 2 points for approach. 1 point for correct conclusion.
c) A discrete-time LTI system is causal if and only if
h[n] = 0,

n < 0.

For the given impulse response we have h[1] = 21 6= 0. The system is

therefore not causal.
Grading: 1 point for the correct use of the causality condition. 1 point for the correct conclusion.

d) A discrete-time LTI system is BIBO stable if and only if its impulse

response is absolutely summable, that is

X
|h[k]| < .
k=

For the given impulse response, we have

X
X

 k
 k
2 u[k + 1] =
2  ,
k=

k=1

which is not absolutely summable (and thus not BIBO stable).

Grading: 1 point for the correct use of the stability condition. 1
point for the correct conclusion.

Quiz Signals & Systems

Problem 2

10 points

This problem consists of five multiple-choice questions.

Each question is worth 2 points if answered correctly and
0 points if answered incorrectly.
Write your answers in the Your Answer box at the end
of each question. If you change your mind, cross out your
answer and write the new one next to the box. No points
will be awarded for crossed out answers.
.........................................................................

1) A continuous-time signal x(t) = sin(6t) is uniformly sampled with

sampling time Ts seconds to produce the discrete-time signal x[n] = x(nTs )
shown below.

x[n]

1
0
1
0

12
n

16

20

Based on this plot, what is the value of Ts ?

(a) 1/6

(b) 1/12

Your Answer:

(c) 1/24

(d) 1/36

24

Problem 2

Quiz Signals & Systems

x[n]

2) The plot below shows the discrete-time signal x[n] = cos(0 n).
1
0
1

10

20

30

40

50
n

60

70

80

90

100

Which of the following plots is x1 [n] = cos((0 + 2)n)?

x1 [n]

Plot (a)
1
0
1

10

20

30

40

50
n

60

70

80

90

100

10

20

30

40

50
n

60

70

80

90

100

10

20

30

40

50
n

60

70

80

90

100

10

20

30

40

50
n

60

70

80

90

100

x1 [n]

Plot (b)
1
0
1

x1 [n]

Plot (c)
1
0
1

x1 [n]

Plot (d)
1
0
1

Your Answer:

Quiz Signals & Systems

3) Consider the LTI system with input x[n] and output y[n] shown in the
figure below:
x[n]

H()

y[n]

The systems magnitude response |H()| and phase response H() are
shown in the following plots:
|H()|

H()

n) for all time. What is the output

Suppose that the input is x[n] = cos( 10
y[n] for all time?

(a) y[n] = cos( 5 n 4 )

(b) y[n] = 2 cos( 10

n)

n 4 )
(c) y[n] = 2 cos( 10

(d) y[n] = cos( 5 n)

Your Answer:

Problem 2

Quiz Signals & Systems

2
1
0

x[n]

h[n]

4) The plots below show the impulse response h[n] of an LTI system and
the input x[n] to that system.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
n

2
1
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
n

Which of the plots below is the output y[n] of the system?

y[n]

Plot (a)
2
1
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
n

y[n]

Plot (b)
2
1
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
n

y[n]

Plot (c)
2
1
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
n

y[n]

Plot (d)
2
1
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
n
Your Answer:

Quiz Signals & Systems

x4 (t)

x3 (t)

x2 (t)

x1 (t)

5) Consider the following continuous-time sinusoids:

1
0
1

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
t

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1
0
1

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
t

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1
0
1

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
t

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1
0
1

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
t

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

The sinusoids are uniformly sampled at 5 Hz. Which of the following

statements is true?
(a) Only x1 (t) can be sampled without aliasing.
(b) Only x1 (t) and x2 (t) can be sampled without aliasing.
(c) Only x1 (t) , x2 (t) and x3 (t) can be sampled without aliasing.
(d) All the signals can be sampled without aliasing.

Your Answer:

Problem 2

Quiz Signals & Systems

Solution 2
1) The correct answer is (d) (2 points).
Notice that:
Twelve samples occur per period of the sinusoid
The frequency of the sinusoid sin(2(3)t) is 3 Hz, therefore three periods per second
Three periods per second twelve samples per period = 36 samples
per second
Sampling frequency of 36 Hz corresponds to a sampling time of 1/36
seconds. Thus (d) is the answer.

2) The correct answer is (b) (2 points).

Remembering that n is per definition an integer (n Z), we have that:
cos((0 + 2)n) = cos(0 n + 2n)
= cos(0 n)
The same function as shown in the introductory plot. Thus (b) is the
answer.

3) The correct answer is (c) (2 points).

Notice that:

The input sinusoid x[n] = cos( 10

n) has frequency 0 =

10

|H()| = 2 for = 0 , meaning sinusoidal inputs at this frequency

have a gain of 2
H() = 4 for = 0 , meaning sinusoidal inputs at this frequency
are phase shifted by 4

Quiz Signals & Systems

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer

4) The correct answer is (d) (2 points). Manual calculation of the convolution proves this.
Intuitively, the first impulse from x[n] occurs at time n = 1, meaning the
first impulse response occurs at time n = 2 (due to the 1-sample delay in
h[n]). This discounts options (a) and (c), which both show response at
time n = 1.
Referring to the convolution definition:
x[n] h[n] =

k=

x[n k]h[k]

We see that when x[n] overlaps h[n] (eg. for n = 3), x[n] h[n] = 2. This
discounts option (b), leaving option (d) as the correct answer.

5) The correct answer is (b) (2 points).

Notice that:
The sampling frequency is 5Hz, giving a Nyquist frequency of 2.5Hz
This implies that only frequencies less than 2.5 Hz can be sampled
without aliasing.
Sinusoid (a) has a frequency of 1Hz
Sinusoid (b) has a frequency of 2Hz
Sinusoid (c) has a frequency of 5Hz
Sinusoid (d) has a frequency of 10Hz
It is therefore clear that (a) and (b) are the only sinusoids with frequency less than 2.5Hz, and therefore able to be sampled without
aliasing.

Problem 3

Quiz Signals & Systems

Problem 3

10 points

A causal, linear time-invariant (LTI) system is described by the transfer

function
z
H1 (z) =
.
(z + 0.75)(z 0.25)
a) Determine the poles of the system.
(2 points)
b) Is the system bounded-input bounded-output (BIBO) sta- (2 points)
ble? Justify your answer.
(2 points)
c) Draw the region of convergence (ROC) of H1 (z).
An LTI system described by an unknown transfer function H2 (z) and
the ROC given in Figure 1 is cascaded with H1 (z) as shown in Figure 2.
The impulse response h[n] of the single equivalent system is given by
h[n] = h1 [n] h2 [n], where h1 [n] and h2 [n] are the impulse responses
associated with H1 (z) and H2 (z), respectively.
Im(z)

1.25

x[n]

0.5
Re(z)

x[n]

h1 [n]

h2 [n]

h[n] = h1 [n] h2 [n]

y[n]
y[n]

Figure 2: Cascade combination.

Figure 1: The shaded region indicates

the ROC of H2 (z).

d) Write the transfer function H(z) of the single equivalent (1 point)

system as a function of H1 (z) and H2 (z).
e) Is the system H(z) BIBO stable? Justify your answer.
(3 points)

Quiz Signals & Systems

Solution 3
a) The poles of the system are defined as the roots of the denominator,
thus
!

(z + 0.75)(z 0.25) = 0
z1 = 0.75
z2 = 0.25.
Grading: 1 point for every correct pole.
b) A causal LTI system is stable if and only if all its poles zi are inside the
unit circle, i.e. |zi | < 1, for all poles i. Both poles lie inside the unit circle.
The system is therefore BIBO stable.
Grading: 1 point for the stability condition. 1 point for correct
conclusion.
c) The region of convergence of a causal LTI system extends outward from
the largest magnitude pole. The ROC of the system described by H1 (z) is
shown in Figure 3. The region is
R1 = {z | |z| > 0.75}.
Im(z)

0.75
Re(z)

Figure 3: The shaded region indicates R1 .

Grading: 1 point for drawing the ROC outside a circle. 1 point

for correct radius.

Problem 3

Quiz Signals & Systems

d) The impulse response of two LTI systems in cascade is the convolution

of their respective impulse responses. In the z-domain, this corresponds to
a multiplication. Thus,
H(z) = H1 (z)H2 (z).
Grading: 1 point for the correct result.
e) The ROC resulting from the multiplication of two discrete-time transfer
functions contains the intersection of the two individual ROCs (see Figure 4) and is defined as
R R 1 R2 .
By definition, a discrete-time LTI system is BIBO stable if and only if the
ROC of H(z) contains the unit circle. This is the case for R: the system
is therefore BIBO stable.
Remark : It can also be argued that the system described by H2 is stable
because R2 includes the unit circle. Then, it can be concluded that a
system obtained by cascading two stable systems is also stable.
Grading: 1 point for correct reasoning. 2 points for correct use
of stability condition (ROC contains unit circle) and correct conclusion.
Im(z)

1.25
0.75
Re(z)

Figure 4: The dark region indicates the intersection of R1 and R2 , which contains the
unit circle.

Quiz Signals & Systems

Quiz Signals & Systems

Problem 4

Problem 4

10 points

The continuous-time signal x(t) = sin(2t) is uniformly sampled with

sampling time Ts , resulting in the discrete-time signal x[n].
a) Choosing the sampling time Ts = 1/5 seconds results in a (1 point)
periodic signal x[n]. What is its fundamental period?
b) For which other values of Ts is x[n] periodic? Justify your (2 points)
answer.
Now, consider the following MATLAB script:
Ts = 1/5;
n = [0 1 2 3 4];
x = 1 + sin(2*pi*n*Ts);
X = fft(x);
N = length(n);
m = abs(X)/N;
C = ...
f = ...
stem(f, m(1:C));
xlabel(Frequency (Hz))
ylabel(Magnitude |X(f)|/N)
Answer the following questions that refer to the above script:
c) What is the Nyquist frequency in Hz?
(1 point)
d) Complete the lines f=... and C=... in order to plot m for (2 points)
frequencies up to the Nyquist frequency.
e) Draw the output of the stem command.
(4 points)
Hint: The following excerpt from the MATLAB help for the fft command
might be useful for this problem:
>> help fft
fft Discrete Fourier transform.
fft(X) is the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of vector X.
For length N input vector x, the DFT is a length N vector X,
with elements
N
X(k) = sum x(n)*exp(-j*2*pi*(k-1)*(n-1)/N), 1 <= k <= N.
n=1

Quiz Signals & Systems

Solution 4
a) The sampled sinusoid has a period of N0 = 5.
Intuitively, we use the definition of periodicity and calculate this as:
x[n] = x[n + N ]
sin(2nTs ) = sin(2(n + N )Ts )
= sin(2nTs + 2N Ts )
Which implies that N Ts Z. Given that N N and Ts > 0, we can
constrain this further to N Ts N. The fundamental period N0 is the
smallest positive integer N such that this condition holds.
We have that Ts = 1/5, thus N/5 N and it follows that N0 = 5, which is
the fundamental period of the discrete-time sequence.
An alternative (more rigorous) approach is presented in the book: Equation 1.54 and 1.55, and Problem 1.11.
Grading: 1 point for correct answer (N0 = 5)

b) As per the above, the condition for periodicity of the sampled sequence
x[n] is that N Ts N.

Let N Ts = k where k N. It follows that Ts = k/N . Given that both k

and N are positive integers, Ts is the division of two positive integers and
is therefore a positive, rational number.
An alternative (more rigorous) approach is presented in the book: Equation 1.54 and 1.55, and Problem 1.11.
Grading: 1 point for justification, 1 point for the correct conclusion

c) Per definition, the Nyquist frequency is half the sampling frequency.

Thus fN = fs /2 = 5/2 = 2.5Hz.
Grading: 1 point for correct answer

Problem 4

Quiz Signals & Systems

d) As per the Matlab script and corresponding instruction, we wish to

plot the magnitude of the DFT coefficients up to the Nyquist frequency.
We calculate the continuous-time frequencies corresponding to the DFT
coefficients as:
fs
fk = k
Hz, for k Z , 0 k N/2
N
5
= k Hz, for k {0, 1, 2}
5
= k Hz, for k {0, 1, 2},
Where N is the number of items in the DFT. Note that in this case,
N = N0 , as we are sampling for one period of the input.
We therefore have:
f = [0 1 2] The frequency axis of the stem plot.
C = 3 The number of items we are plotting (m(1:C))
It is also possible to calculate discrete-time frequencies as:
k = k

2
rad, for k Z , 0 k N/2
N

Grading: 1 point for correct f, 1 point for correct C. Follow

through points were awarded if your answer to part c was incorrect.

e) The sinusoid 1 + sin(2*pi*n*Ts) is sampled with fs=5, Ts=0.2 and

for n=0:4. This corresponds to sampling one period of an offset, 1 Hz
sinusoid at a sampling frequency of 5 Hz.
As per calculations in part d, we wish to plot the magnitude of the first
three DFT coefficients, which correspond to frequencies 0Hz, 1Hz, and 2Hz
respectively.
m0 corresponds to the absolute DC value, ie. the absolute value of the
mean of the sampled signal, which is in this case equal to the offset.
Thus m0 = 1.

Quiz Signals & Systems

m1 corresponds to half (DFT symmetry!) the sinusoid magnitude at

1Hz, thus m1 = 0.5

|X[f ]|

m2 corresponds to half (DFT symmetry!) the sinusoid magnitude at

2Hz, thus m2 = 0
1

0.5
0

0
1
2
Frequency (Hz)

Grading: 2 points for correct m0 , 2 points for correct m1 , -2

points for other non-zero elements. Follow through points were
awarded if your answer to part c was incorrect.
Additional comments:
1. As we have a periodic input and are sampling for the period length,
the DFT elements are equal to the DFS coefficients scaled by N . That is,
X[i] = N ci for a periodic input. We scale by 1/N when calculating the
DFT magnitudes, thus mi = |ci |. Therefore, one possible solution involves
direct calculation of the DFS coefficients and plotting the DFT by using
this property of DFT/DFS equivalence.
and
2. Due to the complex-conjugate symmetry of the DFT, X[3] = X[2]
implying that m3 = m2 and m4 = m1 . You were not required
X[4] = X[1],
to plot these components.